I’m slowly building my Dragon Tiger 1 (Late) and I came across the portion in the instruction regarding the turret machine gun mount again. I just want to know why all the tiger kits has this cradle and not include the MG. I was told by somebody that the tigers did not really have an MG on the turret. Pray tell me what is right. Thank you all.
I presume you are talking about the cupola mounted MG? If so, then in most cases, I have not seen the MG mounted in reference pics.
My dad a former tanker said they dont have one well most dont for some reason he said that some one squalked to Hitler about the ammunition it shot up and Hitler didnt like the Machine gun but that was a major Flaw with the Tiger because at Kursk if they would of had the Cupola Machine G8un then the tankers would have been able to defend there tanks instead of having the Russians at Kursk were able to jump onto the tanks and kill the crews.
The cupola mounted AA MG is actually the main gun’s coaxial MG, removed from it’s coaxial mount and placed in the AA mount on the cupola. There is no other MG available for this purpose. There is also a MP-40 SMG stored inside for close-in self-defense.
That’s why they had S-mines mounted. I sure wouldn’t enjoy standing outside and shooting an MG at hordes of Russians all aming at me. I like the idea of tying barbed wire onto the tanks. That should keep them off.
Also, sentances have subjects, verbs, and punctuations. [;)]
Tanks, especially heavies like the Tiger I were best utilized against enemy vehicles, artillery and fortifications. They weren’t designed to duke it out w/Soviet infantrymen.
Your reply is a jumble of suppositions. There is apocryphal stories of Panzerjager Elefants being overrun by Soviet infantry. This led to the addition of a hull MG in later versions. However, the long gunned Tiger was best slugging away at enemy vehicles and fortifications, supporting and being supported by its own infantry.
The two main machine guns used by the Wehrmacht, the MG 34 and MG 42, were dependable and well liked. Also, tanks button up. A supporting tank could just spray it full of MGs and no more infantry (think Saving Private Ryan).
However, the crews’ fear of enemy infantry was real. I interviewed a German veteran tank commander and he definitely talked about the interdependence with his own infantry. They protected each other.
And I concur, please use punctuation and sentence structure.